Our Only Hope
by Bormex
Summary: My life is a lie, living in district twelve with my little sister isn't bad. It's the fear of if one day we are discovered which gives me nightmares. My name is Peeta Mellark and no matter what it take I must protect my sister Prim. (Alternate Universe)


**_Our Only Hope_**

By

Bormex

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><p><strong><em>AN: Ok this isn't and is a heavily alternate universe. Most of it is going to be told through Peeta's point of view and some characters are going to have completely different back stories and some might be OC. Just a heads up there are a lot of things that are gonna need to be explained but I plan to explain them through the story rather then give it all away here. But if anybody does have any questions feel free to private message me I'll be more than happy to answer anything you need to know. This is a short chapter but I don't know whether to write more or less up to you just let me know if you feel it should be longer other then that well I have nothing to say expect on with the story.<em>**

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><p><strong><em>I do not own the Hunger GamesCatching fire/MockingJay all characters and settings belong to their respected owners._**

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><p><strong><em> Chapter 1:<em>**

_I see her; she still looks as beautiful as she always has. As if the world revolves around that smile, my world does. She's standing there in the garden with the sun glaring behind her as if to emulate her, her holding a bundle in her arms. Looking down at the baby she holds in her arms cooing at the giggling baby who doesn't have a care in the world. _

_Just like we all do, did. Looking up she takes notice of my presence and smiles at me as if calling me. I don't even think twice as I begin to run towards her with my arms wide open "Mommy!" I laugh as run to my mother and sister whole are my whole world. Everything no matter how bleak it becomes I know that as long as I have them both in my life everything will work itself out._

_Just as I'm about to reach my mother all of a sudden the world around us shifts the bright beautiful day that we were just in becomes nothing but darkness engulfing everything I see even my family._

"_NO!" I shout as I stretch out my hand to reach where my family once stood. Looking around me in a futile attempt to find them, I do this for a couple minutes and all I see is nothingness. Tears begin to well up in my eyes as I stand there frighten beyond belief _

"_MOM!" _

_I scream almost begging for my mother to respond back to me but after about five minutes I know that I am alone in the darkness. Alone and scared I lay down in a fetal position crying silently to myself wishing for my mother back. I cry for what feels like hours not moving and not being able to see anything at all. _

_All of a sudden there's a light a single light beaming down at me as if I were standing on stage and an audience were waiting for me to give a performance. Not sure what to do or say I continue to lay there for a couple more minutes. Until I gain the courage to speak, "H-Hello!" I stutter not at all confidant._

"_Is anybody there?" _

_Silence, all I hear. Looking up at the light that is glaring down at me, squinting my eyes in an attempt to see where it's coming from not being able to see the source of it I begin to walk forward. To my surprise the light follows me as I walk. Looking back up I try once again to garner a response from whoever is flashing that light _

"_Hello! Excuse me! Who's up there?" _

_Again I stand there waiting for a response that never comes. After a while I get frustrated with the lack of answers. I begin walking again and to my annoyance the light begins to fallow me. Fed up with this game these people are playing with me I start running. _

_But to my utter shock the light is still able to keep up with me even when I begin sprinting and making zigzag moves. Not once does the light ever lose me from being in its center. I do this until I am out of breath stopping to catch my breath._

_Bent over, hands on my knees I curse whoever is screwing with me "hah hah hah… I swear…..I'm gonna…..kick whoever is at the end of that light square in the balls!" catching my breath at the last bit of my swearing._

"_**So much to do….."**_

_Jolting my head back up in surprise I do a quick search for that voice that just spoke to me. "wha…Who said that!" I begin to back up little in fright, still not feeling completely safe in my current situation._

"_**So much to do….." **__it repeats_

"…_**..So little time" **__My eyes still wonder around trying to find the person who is speaking to me. "__**Don't be afraid" **__I scowl at this offended at what is being said to me "Hey, I'm not scared, at least I'm not the one hiding in the dark trying to freak out some kid!" The voice ignores me and continues to speak._

"_**You have the power to change the world…." **__This shuts me up what does he mean by 'change the world'? _

_**"….There will be times where you will have to fight…."**_

"…_**..But remember to keep your light burning strong….."**_

"…_**The day you change it all is both far and very near…."**_

_After those words are uttered I begin to feel myself sinking not sure what's going on I look down at my feet to see my shadow has grown and formed into a huge puddle of darkness and it starts sucking me in like quick sand. Terrified and not sure of what's happening I begin to thrash around trying to escape from whatever this black stuff is that's pulling me down. But the harder I fight the more I seem to be sinking. All of a sudden the voice speaks again._

"…_**The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes…."**_

_Still fighting for my life I shout back at this voice "What the hell are you talking about!" by this point I am chest deep into the all-consuming darkness. I try raising my head so that I can avoid suffocating, at the same time stretching my arm out in a desperate attempt to grab a hold of something anything to save me._

"…_**But remember don't be afraid….."**_

_At this point I am completely engulfed by the darkness all expect a small portion of my right face and my left arm. It's a good thing my right eye is still free as I can see the light above me still glaring down on me, and as the last remnants of light slowly begins to be covered over me by this dark blanket. I hear the voice one last time._

"_**You hold the mightiest weapon of all; remember you are the one who will change the world"**_

"Wake up!" startled I jolt up from my bed in a half dazed not sure what's going on as my eyes focus on the person hovering over my bed. My bleary vision takes a couple more seconds to take focus but as soon as it does I see my little sister standing over me with her hands on her hips giving me an annoyed look. "Huh? Rose? What do you want?" I sound especially whinny in my half asleep state that I am currently in. Rose's brow frowns at my words and she looks to be fighting off an episode of 'make your big brother deaf'. She huffs in annoyance and responds to me "It's almost eight Cori we have school remember?"

"Oh yeah" I say as I lay my head down on my pillow looking at my sister as she hasn't taken her eyes off of me. "Well? Aren't you gonna get ready?"

"Yeah…..sure…Just give me one… one second….zzzzZZZZZ"

I pass out mid-sentence and happily return to dreamland with open arms despite the nightmare I just had. But to my utter disappointment is seems my sister has other plans for me. Jumping up on me ramming her knees into the side of my stomach Rose began to shout at me as she assaults me with her as I like to call it 'tiny fists of fury' though my sister is too small to actually hurt me the surprise of what she does actually knocks the air out of me.

"Wake up you jerk!"

"OW! Rose ok, ok I'm up" I stammer out in defeat. Though my sister has stopped attacking me she still doesn't move from her spot on top of me. After a while of her not moving off of me I ask her "Well aren't you gonna get off of me?" Smiling down at me with what I can only assume is her way of paying me back for making her wait for me.

"Nope"

That's all she says as she continues to lay on top of me. Sighing in realization that I have been beaten I begin to get up out of bed. The whole time I mutter under my breath about manipulative little sisters and being too smart for their own good. Whether she hears me or not she doesn't make note of it. It takes me fifteen minutes to take a bath and get ready.

As we both step out of the house my little sister seemed to forget or forgive my behavior a couple of minutes ago and puts her hand in my and begins leading me down the usual path to school when she gets that look in her face she actually looks like a normal twelve year old. It never ceases to surprise me just how she can smile despite the ruined life style we have.

Looking at my sister as she drags me I finally take notice of the clothing she is wearing, an old red doted dress with the colors washed out. Shoes that have seen better days and rubber bands she uses to help keep her hair the way she likes. I hate it, I never understand how she can smile and though my sister is my world and I would do anything to see her smile I don't understand how she can.

Everybody tells me the same but it seems that they feel the same as I do as well. My sister seems to be the light of everybody's world whenever she is around she seems to bring the good in people out. Everybody loves her and I can't blame them my little sister, my Rose is perfect.

"Come on, your too slow!" my sister's whined protest snaps me out of my thoughts and I grin sheepishly at her as she pouts at me for being too slow. Chuckling at her expression "Sorry, Sorry I'm moving haha" I begin to pick up the pace as to not upset my sister again and before we know it we are already at school surprisingly with time to spare. Just as I'm about to resume walking again someone calls out to me.

"Peeta!"

Turning around the find the person who called out to me I see my friend Madge running up to me and my sister. When she catches up to us I greet her with a small wave "Morning Madge" giving me a quick hug she then bends down to give my sister a hug too.

"Hey Prim how are you doing today huh?" Smiling up at Madge 'Prim' responds with a quick "I'm fine" Madge nods her head happy with the honest response from my sister. She then looks to me and pauses as if contemplating whether or not she should proceed. Confused by this I raise an eyebrow,

"_hmm strange I wonder what's bothering her, she's never been shy of saying things to me before well unles…."_

I make an 'oh' face as I realize that Madge is hesitating to talk about whatever she wants to tell me in front of Rose.

A frown knowing that if Madge what's to talk about something like that with only me then it must be really serious, after all Madge is the only person who I trusted enough with mine and my sister's darkest secret. Madge notices the look on my face and I nod to her once and quickly hide the look I just had turning and bending down to get on my sister's height I talk to her in the sweetest voice possible hoping that she didn't take notice to the gloomy exchange between me and my friend just a second ago.

"Prim, hey why don't you go on ahead to class without me today; I think Madge here wants to tell me something important who knows she might want to finally confess her undying love me" I say with a smile and a small laugh at what I said.

Prim stands there looking back at Madge and me with confusion in her eyes. A little unsure of what to say all she does is look at me timidly barely mumbles an "ok" and runs off. As I see her run off I can help but feel an aching in my chest. No matter how hard I try to protect my baby sister, yes she's a baby to me even if she's about to hit her teens she is my only family left in this world.

She _is_ my world, she is my reason for living, and I know that no matter how hard I try she is too smart to be fooled she knows that when I go out or when Madge comes by to talk to me it usually pertains to our old lives. A world that when we look back on it now seems like it were centuries ago even though it's been only a few years.

Once she disappears through the front doors of the school I stand back up from my crouched position; still looking at silhouette of where my sister once was for only a short moment more. Sighing in frustration I push the negative thoughts out of my head as I turn around to face Madge.

Madge moves me to fallow her with her eyes as she quickly spins around and begins speed walking; almost running off. I myself fallow her just below her pace. We move for about couple of minutes passing by many of the merchant shops along the way what strikes me as somewhat odd it seems that most of the merchants are having a late start today.

The Butchers are closed which seems strange since the owner is usually as Rose would like to say an 'early bird' but I don't pay too much mind to it since I don't live in this part of district twelve so I cannot know what's too out of place here since I don't shop here either.

It's funny really how often I get those looks from the merchants here who seem to believe that I and my sister are from a merchant family or at least have merchant blood. I guess it has something to do with our blonde hair that makes them believe that but I personally resent that just because I have blonde hair doesn't me I'm related to anyone here.

I tried to explain that to some of the kids here who deiced on Rose's birthday to piss me off with their consent jabbering. It ruined the whole day which I had spent so many months before planning to make special for her. Rose always loves to celebrate birthdays especially mine.

But I'm just the same you can say since when it comes to Rose I would spent hours just trying to plan something special for her. I spent the rest of the walk lost in my thoughts until we reach our usual spot the old abandoned bakery.

This place Madge told me was once home to a family of bakers a very kind man who was unlucky to have married a shrew of a woman, I can't personally say if she was all that bad or not but so far I've heard many a story about her. A lot of the people both from the Seam and the merchants say she was a witch.

"Eh humh?" coughing to gain my attention. It seemed as if I did it again and let my thoughts wander Madge wore a look of slight annoyance at my lack of a proper attention span. Laughing nervously as I rubbed the back of my neck all I could offer her was a sincere albeit half-assed apology

"ha…haha….Sorry"

Blowing the bangs out of her eyes Madge rolls her eyes at me before she finally begins telling me what she needed to be said or so I thought.

"You know, sometimes I wonder if you're really as smart as all those test scores say you are"

Holding my hand to my chest I respond with mock hurt "Madge, I am offended clearly; I am far smarter than even those morons who made those tests could possibly comprehend" as I finish saying this I smile and wink at my friend who in response scoffs at my words.

"Why don't you act like it then? I just don't understand how someone with an IQ over 200 could possibly forget I had blonde hair. Or that I live in 'the big house, with the sign Mayor on it'' Waving my hand at her in dismissal "Tomāto, Tomäto Madge. Those are all semantics and hey! I stand by the fact that I saw you walking around with brown hair for that one month!"

"ughh! Not again with this! I told you already just because you say you saw me like that don't mean it happened or it's real!"

"Hey! Who's the one here with a photographic memory oh! That's right me and I'm telling you I have the proof right here" I finish saying by poking my temple. Taking a step forward Madge as stubborn as always tries to prove me wrong. "You are so full of crap, if you really have photographic memory then how did you forget where I live huh?"

Throwing my hands up in the air I all but shout back "Oh! Ok we're on this again, I told you already Madge _'SE-MAN-TICS'_ and besides I was tired that day too." After we both finish saying are peace we glare at each other for a minute or two until we both cannot hold it in any and then we burst out laughing.

"Ok, Ok but seriously though what did you need to tell me?" I say in between laughs. Madge has the same problem as me of holding in her laughter but gets serious the second I do. Nodding to me she walks passed me to look out the window of the bakery as a sweep to see if the coast is clear before she turns back to me and begins whispering to me just to make sure no one might over hear us.

"Something serious just happened. My dad just received a message from the Capitol" I tense up at this the Capitol doesn't usually send messages to district twelve unless something serious is about to happen. "There's going to be a scheduled mandatory report for the entire district today at 8:00PM it's to be kept a secret" I'm thrown back by this.

"_Wait? That's it?" _Frowning as I think over this new information "_No that's not right, the capitol wouldn't privately tell the mayor that there would be a mandatory report for all of district twelve if it's supposed to viewed by the people why keep it a secret if you want everybody to be ready…Something's not right here" _I begin to think this over the way I do when I have a puzzle to solve.

_Viewing…._

_Capitol…._

_District Twelve….._

_Mayor Undersee…._

_Mandatory…_

_Secret…_

_Capitol…District Twelve…..Secret….._ I try my hardest to figure the reasoning behind what the Capitol's methods might be but grow beyond frustrated when I can't do it I realize all the Intelligence and knowledge of the world won't make me some God-like prophet who can solve every mind game out there. I get angrier and angrier until a soft voice and an equally soft hand brings me back to reality

"Peeta?" whispers Madge as she lays her hand on my shoulder in a calming fashion. Startled out of my thoughts I look myself over and realize that I was doing it again. I got lost in my thoughts but this time it was my 'scary' lost. I shake my head and apologize to Madge.

"Sorry" I say

"It's ok"

"So? Was there anything else about this message your dad got?" shrugging her shouldering in a beats me gesture "I don't even really know, my dad wasn't even allowed to give the slightest hint that this was happening.

Hell I only found out because I was doing a good job of eavesdropping on him" Shocked by this too I realize this must be serious if Mr. Undersee wasn't even allow to give the slightest hint that this is supposed to happen usually he gives his daughter a heads up of anything that isn't absolutely top secret from the capitol which means that whatever this mandatory viewing later today is about is going to be something serious.

"Is there any way we can find out more about this?" I ask even though I already know the answer to my question. Shaking her head at me Madge sounds just as disappointed by this situation "No my dad made sure no one will be able to get into his study he locked it and made sure this time to leave the alarms on. Whatever it is that he was told to keep a secret he fully intends to do so." Pausing to take in a cautionary breath of air

"Which makes me wonder, what the hell are they gonna do?"

Solemnly shaking my head "I don't know this just doesn't make sense. But I think in all fairness if your dad is making a point by keeping this a secret I think its best we do the same. It does us nothing to worry and maybe cause some suspicion being brought to us" crossing her arms and nodding at what I said

"Yeah your right, we should probably head back to school now before we're late and get our asses chewed out by the teachers…..again" laughing at the fond memories we both have of angering our teachers. We decide to head back to school.

Though me and Madge had agreed not to worry over this apparent capitol secret. I couldn't seem to help it one bit, All day I just sat there quiet mulling over what this report could be? What were they going to do? What were they going to say?

All these questions and more ran through my head and it took Rose asking me what was wrong to snap me out of it. I beat myself over the head for even thinking I could hide my discomfort from her. As we were walking back home from school she finally demanded an answer.

"So are you going to tell me what's wrong?" she asked as she looked up at me. I tried to ignore her hoping that if I stayed quiet long enough she would drop it. Looking at her out of the corner of my eyes I notice her not even looking at the road in front of us but rather her head turned toward me waiting for me to talk back to her.

As if reading my thoughts she spoke up again "I'm waiting" groaning in annoyance I just decided to speed off ahead of her. If she isn't around then she can't ask me questions. This theory worked for all about ten seconds as my sister begins to pick up the pace as well to keep me from escaping.

"HA! Like that's going to work mister"

The entire rest of the day was this, my sister constantly asking about what was wrong and me just ignoring her. I know I should probably tell her about what Madge and I spoke about but it I don't believe it's really necessary. Rose would worry too in fact she would worry far more then I would an that's a problem she knows what the Capitol means to us and anything that involves them is just bad.

But all too soon just like Madge had said when 8:00PM rolled around and the symbol of the capitol flashed in our living room screen and just like that my sister became as silent as the night. As the white hair and ugly face of the person known all across Panem came into view, just like that the color from my sister's face completely drained at the sight of him. Glaring at the screen angry at what he does to Rose and what he would do if he were right here right now. Glaring even harder as he begins by smiling an evil smile to the camera one that I have seen countless times even when I tried to forget

After all how could I forget my own Father?


End file.
